East London City Hall
IT’S time our region started getting to grips with our waste, both refuse and sewage.
As populations in urban centres such as Buffalo City and King Sabata Dalindyebo increase, so naturally do levels of rubbish and sewage.
Unless our authorities move quickly and decisively to develop properly managed and controlled waste disposal systems, the economic toll down the line for all of us could be disastrous.
For our region it is almost a double-whammy.
We do not have a strong and diverse industrial economy, so industry cannot play a role to the same extent it does in more industrialised urban communities with recycling and waste management.
It is precisely because our economy lacks a strong enough industrial base to bring in wealth and create jobs through production, that we rely increasingly on tourism and agriculture to drive our economic growth.
This means that while on the one hand we do not have the economic muscle to cope with the quantity and quality of waste generated by a growing population, on the other those economic activities that offer us the best chance to grow wealth and jobs are most affected by waste, deterring tourists and threatening agricultural production.
Whether it is the residents of King William’s Town choking on fumes from a burning landfill or carpets of litter in our streets or marine life hit by effluent pumped into the sea, the problem is the same.
We have reported that numerous samples taken and tested from various sewage discharge points found high levels of fecal coliform bacteria – posing a very real health threat bearing in mind that human pathogens can be transmitted through the food chain, even plants.
We need a way out of the cycle.
Our local and regional authorities need to go back to the drawing board, and in particular take careful note of the National Waste Management Strategy, a legal requirement of the National Environmental Management, Waste Act of 2008.
It is an excellent strategy with all the tools needed to manage waste effectively and actually start turning waste management into economic opportunity.
What is clearly and sadly lacking, however, is the political leadership and administrative capability to turn the strategy into real, on-the-ground programmes.
It is completely unacceptable that landfill sites such as those at Berlin and King William’s Town have been allowed to reach a point where they can no longer function, and that workers have to resort to desperate measures like burning the rubbish to try and create a little more space to take the overwhelming load.
It’s time to clean up the rubbish.
